April 8, 2010
COLUMBIA, S.C. – University of South Carolina head women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley and her collegiate head coach Debbie Ryan of the University of Virginia have been named court coaches for the 2010 USA Select Team, USA Basketball announced today. USA Basketball will conduct the USA Select Team training camp April 15-18 in Hartford and Storrs, Conn., in order to continue preparing its historically strong pipeline of athletes for future USA National Team events. Comprised of future USA National Team hopefuls, the collegians will scrimmage against the USA National Team.
“It’s going to be great coaching the USA Select Team,” Staley said. “I once sat where they sit and, for me, it’s about giving back, letting them know what representing the United States is about. Whether it’s one of these training camps or playing internationally at a tournament, it is a true privilege to put on a USA Basketball uniform. It’s got to be played a certain way. I love the whole concept of playing USA Basketball because there’s one common goal that everybody has to commit to, and everybody always does. It’s going to be a tremendous honor working with Debbie [Ryan]. I was with her at UVa and I had a couple of opportunities to coach against her, going down to Virginia when I was at Temple, but coaching with her is something I never thought would ever happen. I’m glad it’s going to happen on USA Basketball soil.”
Staley just completed her second season at the helm of the University of South Carolina team, coaching two All-Southeastern Conference selections and two unanimous SEC All-Freshman team honorees in that short time. In her 10 seasons as a head coach, she has amassed a 196-114 record, including a 108-46 mark in conference play.
“I couldn’t be happier that Dawn and Debbie have agreed to do this,” said 2009-12 USA Basketball Women’s National Team head coach Geno Auriemma of the University of Connecticut. “Dawn has had such a long and distinguished career with USA Basketball and had so much success on the playing side winning gold medals, on the coaching side winning gold medals, she’s a natural. And then having Debbie, who’s been doing this for so long, who coached Dawn and who I have tremendous respect for and I’m so fond of, is great. I think it’ll be a great learning experience for the two of them, as well as for me to be around the two of them.”
This appointment is Staley’s second as a head coach with USA Basketball. She previously headed up the 2007 USA Pan American Games Team, a group of collegians that went up against national teams preparing for the Olympic qualifying tournament that was held later that summer. Staley and the U.S. squad came away with a perfect 5-0 slate after stunning host Brazil in the gold medal contest. Staley, who began her USA Basketball career in 1989 as a member of the USA U19 World Championship Team, also served as an assistant coach for the 2006-08 USA Basketball Women’s National Team and capped her three-year stint by aiding the U.S. to a gold at the 2008 Olympic Games. In all, with Staley on the sideline, the 2006-08 USA National Team compiled a 34-3 record.
Prior to moving into a coaching role for USA Basketball, Staley was a fixture on USA teams nearly every year from 1989 to 2004. A two-time USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year (1994, 2004), Staley was voted by all U.S. team captains in 2004 to carry the United States flag and lead the USA’s delegation into the Athens Olympics Opening Ceremonies. Additionally, Staley was named the MVP of the 1994 Goodwill Games and served on the USA Basketball Executive Committee as an athlete representative.
Click here for more information about the USA Women’s Select Team.
